Alpacaly ever after… at Keswick

Alpacas, Keswick, autumn leaves and a huge estate? I mean what more could you want out of a days adventure!!

I felt like the luckiest girlie this weekend as Jack surprised me yet again with another birthday present! Obviously I had known we were going away and to Keswick, but to go on a private alpaca walk? I was clueless until the day before!! This experience is listed as the top thing to do in Keswick and holy cow does it live up to that!

From my previous weekend away post you know I love the Lake District! I grew up going there and spent my teen years sailing on their lakes. However I had never heard of The Lingholm Estate! A fantastic and absolutely breathtaking grounds and mansion in Keswick! The perfect place for Alpacaly ever after I must say. Located in Portinscale it is just a short drive from Keswick centre!

Our slot was at 12:45 and thankfully the rain from the day before had cleared and it was even a lil sunny! We arrived and met our guide outside the walled garden by the chainsaw art red squirrel! Natasha (our guide) took us to meet some of the male alpacas! She explained to us that only those who enjoy a walk are the ones who go on the walks! This meant that we only met the walking alpacas, even though they have a grand 70 in total! The women tend to enjoy a more home life and the more dominant males are just best kept off the walks!

The amazing thing about alpacaly ever after is that the alpacas are rescued from up and down the UK!

Since alpacaly ever after opened 18 month ago it has been completely booked up! And since it is so close to Keswick it is the perfect accompaniment to a weekend break! The best part of all is that all of these beautiful creatures have been rescued and rehoused on this insane estate to live their best lives!

There are many different types of alpacas, and as we found out they originate from Peru! Whilst meeting the other alpacas we got to meet a super rare alpaca called a Suri alpaca and some cute albino ones that are also deaf! Heart melt!!

They are such tame and gentle natured animals who love a good neck rub! After our guide Natasha herded up our two.. Inka and Hobbs! She gave us a safety talk! No touching their heads or behinds, don’t let them eat the acorns and that this was basically an all you can eat buffet for them! I mean who wouldn’t like a walk if that’s the case!

We then walked off away from the public grounds and from prying eyes and off into the private estate grounds! Oh how damn picturesque! We strolled, found out more about the alpacas and let the boys eat and eat and eat! Jack as always was full of questions and interest about both the estate and the animals! Luckily even though our fab guide had only been there a month she knew it all! Literally hats off to you Natasha, you were amazing!

We strolled all over the grounds, saw so many beautiful trees and autumn colours! As always I had Jack take an absolute abundance of pictures, but you only walk alpacas once! Along the walk there was a couple of sets of stairs… My beautiful alpaca each time we got to a set of stairs had an amazing trick he loved to perform. He would jump. JUMP up the stairs, each time nearly crashing right into me! I mean hey! I guess you just have to let an alpaca live a little! (Even though they live till they’re 20!)

Inka and I truly became besties!

During our walk Inka kept making the cutest little humming sound, which I later found out was his happy noise! Have you heard of anything so darn sweet! It was now official we were besties! Hobbs on the other hand kept trying to eat instead of be Jack’s best pal and he totally wasn’t sore about that! They also enjoy using those they like as a little itching post! Once again Inka, who loved me, kept using me to itch his cute lil face! And as kind of gross as an alpaca itching on you sounds, it was cute as hell.

During our walk along the water front we came across a bride who had, had her wedding in the grounds the day previous! Since it was raining and storming so bad on the Saturday they had not managed their normal pictures, nor their alpaca pictures! So as the came by we offered up Inka for a quick wedding shoot! I mean that boy is now going to be in a wedding album!

Talk about fame!

We rounded off our crazy amazing experience with a bit of hand feeding! Sadly we did not get the initial feed pictured but here was the end of our feeding time! All of the alpacas and their pals swarmed us fighting it out for a tonne of delicious treats! It was seriously incredible and sooooo cute! They only have 6 bottom teeth so hand feeding just tickles, A LOT!

I had no idea alpacas were so cute and gentle before this experience, we genuinely learnt so much and had a flipping wonderful time! So big thank you to Jack for finding this and getting me this wonderful experience! And thank you to alpacaly ever after and Natasha for being fantastic at your job! I just want to do it all over again!

Neve x

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